Letter to the Minister of Health (copy, paste and personalize in your own word processing program - the background WILL NOT transfer with it.

(Date Here)

Honourable Health Minister Tony Clement

House of Commons

Ottawa, ON  K1A 0A6

Dear  Honourable Health Minister Clement;

        Today I am writing to you to enlist your help in battling Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).  I have this disease as do far too many other Canadians, Americans,  and a host of others on a world wide basis.  This disease is ranked 4th in the world as a destroyer of life and is gaining ground daily.   By 2020 it will be 3rd.  It's the ONLY chronic disease with INCREASING MORTALITY.

        Our own Canadian record of  waging war or even recognizing the importance of this growing epidemic is dismal at best.  According to the Lung Association there is no governmental policy and certainly no guidelines for your Provincial Ministers to follow.  Why???  This disease kills more and more each year and yet there's no national policy.  Why is that Minister Clement?

        When SARS first hit the news it was talked about daily and fought on every front.  SARS is also a respiratory disease.  According to the WHO, SARS was directly responsible for 8,000 cases worldwide.  Of this number,  10% was fatal.  800 died in a "supposed" epidemic or outbreak of this killer.  Conversely, again, and according to the WHO, there will be 5 Million tobacco related deaths this year.  Think about that number....5 MILLION this year alone from Lung Disease.

        During the SARS outbreak in Canada, you were the Ontario Health Minister.  I remember people pointing fingers at you for not doing more.  Do you remember?  We do.  Yet in all of Canada there were only 43 deaths directly attributed to SARS.  Right now there are more people dying of COPD than you can imagine. Approximately 750,000 have been diagnosed.  Close to that number again have the disease but aren't yet aware of it.  4,300 women alone will die of COPD this year right here in our country.  One in 6 Canadians are affected by this.  That's 6,000,000 Canadians. 

        The overall impact on Canada is astronomical.  Lost wages of sick workers, health care costs, the costs of our children's health and the poverty aspect of a family that uses money to buy tobacco rather than putting those monies into education, better living conditions, retirement; even proper food on the table.

        However, I do want to applaud you for your concern about hospital wait times and especially your anti smoking cigarette advertising.  But sir; that's not enough. 

        Much more needs to be done to address the COPD issue.  We are dying and we desperately need you to help to get more done on ALL fronts.  More money for research, more money for "proper medicines"  for those who can't afford it, more money for education; more of everything really.  The new reality is here and we beseech your help.  It's up to you.

        Please, please; will you help us to live longer and healthier with better care, or will you turn your back, stick your head in the sand, and hope we'll go away?  Eventually we will go away.  We will die and be replaced by an even larger group currently growing in numbers.  It will get worse.

        Respectfully Submitted,

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